FCC says undersea cable OK

Trans-Pacific traffic cited in decision

WASHINGTON {AP} The Federal Communications Commission has given permission to a U.S.-Japanese consortium to build and operate an undersea fiber optic cable between the United States and Japan.

The Japan-US Cable Network, or JUS, had amended its construction and maintenance agreement to address concerns that the undersea cable would have an anti-competitive effect on the industry, the FCC said Friday.

Those amendments included a provision that grants each of the consortium's members, including AT&T, the right to provide connections between the cable and public networks.

The FCC also decided that the growing amount of trans-Pacific cable traffic outweighed any anti-competitive risks.